turning your 'workshop' into a profit center

Filed in archive Global Economy on October 21, 2003

ebookers.com the online travel portal has decided early to move operations to Delhi, India. The local subsidiary even has an own brand and is called 'Tecnovate'.

"Delhi helps provide a round-the-clock service along with offices in Europe. But what about local knowledge or language skills? That was the fear of ebookers' office in Finland, which trained some Finnish students and sent them to work in Delhi during their college gap year. The idea has now been expanded and 50 Europeans are working alongside the 600 Indian staff. More are on their way. It is the ability to answer questions by e-mail within a few hours---even on a Sunday evening---which is characteristic of the high level of service that Mr. Dhamija is counting on to help ebookers stand out from the pack."

As costs per employee decrease if the size of operations increase he now plans to do more for interested companies. This is often a desperate approach if your own business is diminishing, but ebookers reported strong results recently. But maybe it's just a new strategy in India's growing BPO market.